70. quip, a jest at one's expense. Milton's much-quoted "Quips and cranks and wanton wiles" has preserved the word to modern English.

75. countercheck, rebuff: the metaphor is from chess (Wright). 80. Swords are measured before a duel, to find if they are of equal length. Touchstone and his adversary measured them-and parted.

82. Shakespeare is usually supposed to be referring here to a treatise on duelling by Vincentio Saviolo (1595), the second book of which deals with Honor and honorable Quarrels. But the resemblance between Touchstone's Lies and Saviolo's is not very close: if Shakespeare had any particular book in view it may equally well have been, as Furness thinks, The Book of Honor and Arms (1590).

83. books for good manners, books of etiquette. There were many such then, as now-e.g. Whittinton's Lytle Booke of Good Maners for Chyldren (1554).

89. I knew. Modern usage would require the perfect.

92. swore brothers. The expression alludes to the fratres jurati ('sworn brothers') of the days of chivalry-warriors who swore to share each other's fortunes. A relic of the custom survives, says Prof. Herford, in the German custom of Bruderschaft.

96. This characteristic observation of the Duke's reminds us of the directly satirical intention of Touchstone's wit. It is a hit at a contemporary affectation.

96. stalking-horse, a real or artificial horse, under cover of which sportsmen approached their game.

97. under the presentation, under cover, presenting it before him. The word is used in a somewhat different sense, 'show'><‘substance', in Richard III., iv. 4. 84.

Still Music], soft music.

98. Critics have objected to the introduction of Hymen as on a different level of convention from the rest of the piece. But the pageant, as Dr. Johnson pointed out, is contrived by Rosalind as the magic machinery which restores her to her father.

100. atone, are at one. Shakespeare also uses the word transitively, to reconcile. See Glossary. 105. her bosom. do not understand.

The Folios and the Globe have his, which I

114. Rosalind has been the moving spirit of the last three acts, sustaining the dialogue and guiding the various strands of plot. Now that she has made all doubts even, she gives herself to her father and her lover, and says no more.

115. bar, prohibit.

120. If truth holds true contents, if truth be true. This speech of Hymen's, and the following song, have been suspected, but on no evidence except their general feebleness. It must be admitted that the execution of this scene is not up to the level of the earlier acts, at least in the verse part.

124. to, for, as still in 'have to wife'.

125. sure together, a sure match.

127. wedlock-hymn. In Shakespeare's days music formed a regular part of wedding-ceremonies. Wright compares the similar pageant in the Tempest.

131. Juno's crown. Juno, the queen of the gods, presided over wedlock.

134. high, solemn.

The

138. Even daughter, my daughter equally with Rosalind. sense of equally, likewise, is more in place here than the ordinary corrective' sense- "my niece, nay, my daughter"-though this is possible.

140. "Thy fidelity knits my love to thee". combine to bind, cf. Measure for Measure, iv. 3. bined by a sacred vow".

=

For this sense of 149, “I am com

141-156. Attention has been called in the Introduction to this important departure from the novel. The action has been steeped so long in the atmosphere of Arden that an incursion of the evil passions which dominate the first act would be felt as a grave breach of harmony. One of the evil principles has already been reconciled by the conversion of Oliver, and Shakespeare now eliminates the other by similar means. The Duke's conversion is narrated, because it does not admit of dramatic treatment. Moreover, by being presented thus indirectly, the fact is kept remote, and felt only as a cloud that has passed away. Jaques de Boys merely discharges the function of the ayyeλos of Greek tragedy.

146. Address'd a mighty power, prepared a great force. See Glossary.

147. in his own conduct, under his own leadership.

151. question, conversation.

151. was converted. A subject is supplied from line 149.

154. all their lands restored. 'Were' may be supplied, but the construction is probably nom. absol.

156. engage, pledge. See Glossary.

156. The elder Duke accepts the return of fortune in the same philosophic spirit in which he endured adversity.

157. offer'st fairly, makest a handsome present.

160. do those ends, accomplish those purposes.

162. every, every one. Cf. any as pronoun, i. 2. 119.

163. shrewd, hard. See Glossary.

165. states, fortunes-'estates' in the wider sense.

170. by your patience, by your leave. This sentence is addressed to the Duke.

172. pompous, ceremonious.

174. In this way Jaques, like the usurper, though for a different reason, is eliminated from the 'better world' which the Duke's return inaugurates.

174. convertites: the E. E. form of 'converts'.

176. The real courtesy which prompts these good wishes forbids us to take too harsh a view of Jaques. He is a gentleman spoiled. His sarcasm is reserved for Touchstone, who is fair game.

176. You to your former honour I bequeath. Schmidt cites this as an instance of a phrase in which the whole relation of ideas is inverted = I bequeath your honour to you. Such inversion is naturally most common in verbs of joining and separating. 177. deserves: cf. note on v. I. 57.

EPILOGUE.

Spoken in his own person by the boy-actor who played Rosalind.

I. It is not the fashion, &c. Not before the Restoration was it common to assign Prologue or Epilogue to characters in the play: in the Tempest, however, the Epilogue is spoken by Prospero, and in All's Well by the King. For a female character to speak the Prologue was a novelty in 1609: "A She-Prologue is as rare as a usurer's alms", Prologue to Every Woman in Her Humour. (From G.S. B., The Prologue and Epilogue.)

2. unhandsome, in bad taste.

3. Good wine needs no bush. An ivy bush was the sign of a vintner-ivy being sacred to Bacchus, the god of wine. The custom still survives in parts of Germany; and in this country 'The Bush Inn' is still no uncommon name for a tavern. The proverb means that good things don't need to be advertised.

7. insinuate, ingratiate myself.

10-14. The sense of this nonsense seems to be: let each one like what pleases him or her, and so among you all the play will please everybody.

II. as please you. Please is subjunctive, used indefinitely after relatives as may please.

15. If I were a woman. Women's parts, on the public stage, were not regularly taken by women till after the Restoration, though they had acted before in masques and private theatricals. "The innovation had been made tentatively, and with some secrecy, and the practice was formally legalized by Royal Patent in 1662" (Ward, English Drama, ii. 422). The tables have been turned at last. On Feb. 27th of this year, As You Like It was played in London by a company consisting entirely of women. "The general effect," said the newspapers, was less unpleasant than might have been ex

pected."

16. liked, pleased. Originally impersonal, hit licað me, a usage which lasted into the 16th century. Hence two others (1) personal --other subjects instead of it; but in Shakespeare in the sense of please the impersonal use is common; (2) 'I like it', i.e. find it pleasing a change of meaning helped by French. Cf. please.

defied, disliked. See note on v. 4. 65.

APPENDIX A.

HAD SHAKESPEARE READ THE COKE'S TALE?

66

was no

Most critics think not. "The old bard", says Farmer, hunter of MSS.", and the Tale is not known to have been printed till 1721. It is no argument that Lodge had read it: Lodge was a man of university training; he had been a servitor at Trinity College, Oxford, and may there have acquired habits of research.

On the other side, Knight argues that Lodge's novel was written at sea. Yet he follows the Tale so closely that we can hardly help thinking (urges Knight) that he must have had a copy of it before him. If this were so, then the Tale must have been more widely diffused (in MS. or broadsheet) than is commonly imagined. We may, therefore, give up our prejudice on that head, and judge the question by the evidence.

The following are the chief points of comparison, and of these I attach most importance to 3 and 6:—

1. Sir Johan is at first advised to leave all to his eldest son.

2. Johan "feeds" Gamelyn "yvel and eek wrothe". So Orlando says that Oliver's horses "are fair with their feeding": "he lets me feed with his hinds" (i. I. 10, 16).

66

3. When called a gadelyng" Gamelyn retorts:

"Cristes curs mot he have that clepeth me gadelyng.

I am no worse gadelyng, ne no worse wight,
But born of a lady, and geten of a knight."

So Orlando: "I am no villain; I am the youngest son of Sir Rowland de Boys; he was my father, and he is thrice a villain that says such a father begot villains" (i. I. 49).

4. Johan prays that Gamelyn may break his neck in the wrestling; Oliver tells Charles

"I had as lief thou didst break his neck as his finger" (i. 1. 125).

5. In the Tale, as in the play, the Franklin bemoans his sons; in the novel he is stoical.

6. When the wardens of the wrestling tell Gamelyn that the fair is over, he replies—

"I have not yet halvendel [half] sold up my ware"

So Orlando-

"I am not yet well breathed" (i. 2. 184)